As a PNM and even as a new member, you may feel like you’re “too new” or “too young” to be making an impact on your chapter & the women you meet through your recruitment experience.
Although you may be one of the newest or youngest members of your chapter, that doesn’t mean you have to wait to be a leader or create the community you’re looking for! Chapter leadership doesn’t have to start when you get on executive council — it can start by being confident in yourself as a PNM.
A great example of this PNM confidence turning to leadership is within my own sorority journey.
When I got to college, I was convinced sorority life wasn’t for me; I didn’t feel like I would “fit in” within the Greek community, so I spent my first year of college with very few friendships or organizations I enjoyed.
In my sophomore year, I was constantly seeing Instagram ads and women tabling all across campus talking about recruitment for a new sorority chapter that was reestablishing on our campus. When a chapter is reestablishing, there’s no current members and no executive board — just a few national chapter advisors and the values of our national organization to grow from.
I immediately signed up without a second thought — somehow, I knew right away that this was the community I was missing in my college experience thus far. After the recruitment process, I sat at bid day with a hundred other women I had just met, and realized that we were now responsible for bringing this chapter to life. That meant jumping directly into leadership and learning everything we could about running a chapter.
A few weeks later, I was selected to be on our Leadership Nominating Committee, where we would be the ones to create the slate for our very first chapter leadership team. After 50 interviews and many long days with the rest of the committee and our advisors, we established our chapter leadership team who went on to take us through our very first primary recruitment that following spring.
We brought in the most amazing group of women this year, and none of it would have been possible without all the people who jumped into their roles and were confident in their ability to lead in the chapter just three months after joining.
I now serve in a Vice President role on our Panhellenic Executive Council, which I started just 6 months after joining the Panhellenic Community at my university. I spent a lot of time thinking that I was “too new” and didn’t have enough experience to be in such an important role on campus, but when I was elected I quickly realized there’s no such thing.
While my sorority journey is certainly different from most, I think it serves as a great example of your capabilities in the Panhellenic community – even as a PNM or new member. As you head into recruitment; be confident in yourself and your role within your future chapter, and actively be willing to learn more about yourself and the women that will become your sisters.
That kind of attitude creates some of our community’s best leaders, and whether you’re the next chapter president, committee member, or Panhellenic executive member – always be confident in your abilities and who you are.
